


6/10

by lizwillstealyourgirl



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Short & Sweet, Very Lowkey Benverly, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 19:17:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12777702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizwillstealyourgirl/pseuds/lizwillstealyourgirl
Summary: (gotta get up early tomorrow again)suffering and the end of suffering.





	6/10

**Author's Note:**

> This is super short and unedited but I’ll edit it eventually, lol. Beverly centric because I love her and she deserved better.

 

* * *

 

the best way to wake up in the morning was to the smell of autumn and coffee.

it was the smell of leaves falling, the soft sound of wind rushing by the window that you left open the night before, because the evenings are hot before the night cools. it was the noises that a city in fall made; the beeping and honking of cars in the early mornings, the twinkling of stars before the sun had fully risen, the movement and people that were so close but so far. the best way to wake up in the morning was to the smell of autumn and coffee.

the worst way to wake up was to the shrill ringing of an alarm, which was exactly how beverly woke up.

she rolled over hastily, slamming her hand on the snooze button. exactly 57 seconds later, the alarm she set on her phone (because she knew she would snooze the alarm clock) rang out. this was when her morning began.

she sort of looked like a zombie in the mornings, dragging herself around the room. she sluggishly traveled from her bed to her closet, where she pulled out her clothes without giving them a second glance and sleepily threw them on. she brushed her teeth, and tried to freshen up with face wash and moisturizer - of course, the bags under her eyes didn't budge. then, she dragged herself downstairs.

she didn't wake up to coffee and bacon because there was no one in the house to make any. she woke up to shrill alarms and the sound of clutter when she ran into walls and doors and corners and counters because she didn't notice her eyes were closed. she scrounged the cupboard before remembering it was empty. she grabbed her backpack and ran out the door.

her morning didn't start with the sounds of existence - the rustling when your loved ones are awake before you, the dog making his way around to say hello to everyone, the wind blowing against open doors. her mornings didn't start with anything.

 

* * *

 

  
what's it like to be alone? beverly thought she'd never know. but still she stands, staring over the edge of something she hasn't learned yet.

  
after the loser's had seemingly beaten _It,_ beverly was meant to leave to live with her aunt. of course, only her luck would bring her and her aunt together one last time in a hospital room after living with her for a month or so. after that, beverly gave up on people and returned to derry to set up shop in some empty barn with a dirt floor on some rural street in the back of derry. since no one was living there, beverly decided she would. she cleaned it up, and though it looked awfully like the house on neibolt street, she survived.

she rode her bike to meet richie in front of the school for a smoke. then bill, eddie, stan, and ben would all trail in one by one. mike would be joining them next year for high school, but until then it was the six of them. the six of them against the world.

as she took a huff from the cigarette, richie looked over to her with a solemn look on his face, one more serious than she'd seen since _It_ broke eddie's arm and tried to eat them all alive. "what?" she snapped, though her words had no real bite.

he cleared his throat. "nothing, bev, just thinking about how great mrs. k looked last ni-"

she slapped him over the head. "you don't have to do that around me, richie. you don't have to be that way."

he smiled and scoffed. "i know, bev. well, are you alright?"

"yeah, i'm fine. kind of lonely, living in a place like the house haunted by a demon, but fine." they smiled at each other, returning to their silence.

stan and bill walked up together, shoulder to shoulder, talking about something with gentle smiles on their faces. beverly always thought it was funny how those two boys were best friends because they were happy together, but she and richie were best friends because they were both so terribly unhappy. it's all the same now, though, isn't it?

"so glad you boys finally showed up!" richie called out. "your mom hasn't called me back yet, stan, what's she been up to?"

"really, tozier, that's the best you could come up with? no set up at all?" they all laughed at stan's bite. he wasn't very intimidating at all, but he and the other losers really did love to tease richie.

bill curled up in between beverly and richie, stan on her other side, and they began their morning talking about nothing of importance, and ben skipped into their spot, nose buried some notebook without a front cover.

"w-what's th-that b-b-ben?" bill smiled.

"nothin'. just some, like, stuff. or whatever." ben blushed a deep red before stuffing it into his backpack.

"i bet it's poetry. some lovey-dovey shit. about how handsome, wonderful, and sexy i am. most poems are about me. at least, the ones your m-"

"beep beep, richie." a familiar and amused voice said behind him.

"eds! so happy to see you here. i wonder, what's changed? you look so nice and glowing today. did you, perchance, walk here today?" richie stood to tower over his best friend.

he laughed softly and curtsied sweetly. "i did, actually. and stop calling me eds."

"why, i ain't never been more proud! can't believe my little eddie spaghetti got off his lazy ass and went to school for once."

"oh shut it, trashmouth. i was sick." eddie punched richie, which led to richie punching back and accidentally kicking bill in the knee, which eventually led to a full fledged war between the five boys while beverly sat, laughing and smoking a cigarette.

she didn't have anyone to wake up to. she didn't have anyone to make her coffee or bacon. she didn't have parents or a home or a place to belong to. but she had her little family. she had bill to say hello to and curl up with in the early hours, richie to feed her a cigarette breakfast, ben's parents who had accepted her as one of their own, movie nights at stan's house on fridays, eddie to keep her sane and clear headed when she needed to talk about something, anything. she even had mike, though he wasn't around nearly enough, for when she was more alone than she wanted to be, and so she would sleep in his barn with him, just until the nightmares surpassed them both for a few nights. she didn't have someone to wake up to, or a house to belong to, but she sure as hell had a family.

 

* * *

 

  
the months came so fast, for september turned into october which turned into november and suddenly it was the week before thanksgiving and beverly hadn't ever felt as lonely as she did right then and there. what's a family if you have no one to spend thanksgiving with?

working every day helped her put food on her plate, but it didn't do much else. besides, of course, the inevitable exhaustion at the end of every day. she had friday's and saturday's off to spend time with her friends, but besides that she never got a break. until, her boss told her to take thanksgiving day off.

which sounds great. who wants to work on thanksgiving? except she'd rather work than have to face the fact that she had no one to eat dinner with. no one to give thanks to.

she had her boys, sure, but they had families. ben was so excited because his family loves thanksgiving and eddie couldn't wait because his mom would watch tv with him and for once pay attention to him and mike had all of his aunts and uncles coming to visit and richie and stan we're going to bill's house, and beverly was going to eat alone in her stupid, dusty kitchen with no one to love.

the day before thanksgiving arrived, and the loser's club were all sat in the field behind mike's barn with a bonfire lit, richie and beverly smoking their cigarettes and the others drinking their sodas. they were talking nonsense, just saying whatever came to mind.

ben, thoughtlessly though kind as usual, asked her what she was doing for thanksgiving. he said, "everyone else has said what we're doing, but you haven't said a word about it."

the fire in the middle of them crackled, as silence fell over the group. beverly tightened her jaw, took one last puff of the cigarette she was holding before butting it out on her shoe. "i'm not doing anything." she said monotonously.

stan raised his brow. "nothing? at all?"

"nope." she countered back. "i'm going to beg my boss to let me work overtime at the shop, you never know who's going to need help with their car on thanksgiving. and if that doesn't work i'll probably have my own cereal feast."

if it weren't silent before she answered, it sure as hell was now. the quiet between the kids was so thick, the campfire didn't seem to crackle and pop loud enough to even be heard. all the birds and crickets and rustling of the trees behind them went dead silent, as if they felt the tension too. no one really knew what to say.

"well, i'm so glad stan's mom is going to be at the thanksgiving thing. i haven't really called her back since our passionate night together, a-"

a chorus of "shut up richie!"s interrupted his stupid joke. beverly had never been more grateful for richie's inability to filter himself. she never really could've guessed what would've happened next.

the next morning, thanksgiving morning, beverly woke up in a pool of alcohol, and water that had leaked from the ceiling and possibly vomit, with a sore and stiff back and dried tears on her cheeks. she must have had another stupid nightmare, and sometimes she doesn't wake up, she just stays asleep, lost in a twisted dream. she drags herself up off the floor of her kitchen area (there isn't really any rooms in the house, just a stupid mattress, a stupid bathtub, and a stupid kitchen on a stupid floor in a stupid house with some stupid, barely-there electricity) and takes a bath. it's a cold, unsatisfactory bath but it cleans off the vomit - which she still has to clean off the floor, dammit - and that's good enough. once she's done, she cleans the floor like a zombie - she cleans though, and that's good enough. then she's done with that, and there's nothing to do, so she sits on the floor and stares at the ceiling. and she cries. only a little bit. except it's actually a lot and she cries from the time she wakes up (which is roughly 8 in the morning) all the way until noon, when there's a banging at the door. the banging, which almost caused her a panic attack, was followed by, "bev, get off your ass, we're coming in!" she barely has time to wipe her eyes before 6 teenage boys come barging in all at once, practically throwing themselves through the door.

"hey, bev, get up!" richie grabs her by the wrist and heaved her into the air.

"have you been crying?" ben asks with a soft, caring voice.

"yeah." she admits. "it's fine."

the boys are silent for a moment, but bill breaks the quiet with a smile. "b-b-bev w-we have a-a surprise f-for you."

she raises an amused brow. "i'm scared."

"you should be, it was richie's idea." eddie smirked with a jab to richie's ribcage, who returned the jab with a smack to eddie's arm.

"it was sort of ben's too! don't blame it all on me if it goes wrong." richie stuck out an immature tongue.

mike rolled his eyes and spoke out a, "shut up, richie," before turning to beverly to grab her by the hand and drag her out of her house.

"where are we going?" she laughed, following behind as bill grabbed her other hand and pulled as well.

"that's the surprise, bev!" stan clapped a hand on her shoulder with a grin.

and that's house she found herself in richie's kitchen, in front of a table full of mac and cheese, pizza, carrots, greasy snacks and soda's.

"we didn't know how to make a real thanksgiving feast, so we just all made what we knew how to. eddie brought the carrots, we don't know why." stan explained with a smile.

"ben wanted to throw a thanksgiving for you, and richie said we should do it at his house because his parents are gone anyway." mike leaned back onto the table, grinning as he spoke.

beverly was speechless, for once. she stared at the food, then at richie, then at ben, then back at the food, then back at ben, before she broke out in a laugh. "i-i-i-"

"bill, she's doing your thing!" richie laughed. "it's contagious!"

"s-s-stuff it, rich." bill punched richie in the arm, and still beverly stood staring at ben.

"i love you." she said to ben, before clearing her throat. "i mean, i love you. you guys. all of you." she traced her eyes over every one of the boys. ben looked too jittery for her to handle right now - it was the sweetest thing she'd seen in a while. "thank you." her voice cracked with tears.

"no! no don't cry!" the boys all jumped to stop her tears. she laughed in response, of course, already crying.

"okay. i won't. let's just. eat this stupid food."

so they did. and when richie's mom came home, drunk off her ass at 3 in the afternoon, the kids packed up their food and went to bill's house, where they ate with his family, and stan's family, and ben's and mike's had joined too and even mrs. k was there to say hello.

she didn't have a real, blood family to go home to and to love and to spend thanksgiving with. but she did have a family - she just didn't find it until it was almost too late.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: lizwillstealyourgirl.tumblr.com
> 
> Send me an ask and comment down below! :)
> 
> I might add a chapter about Christmas but idk. I wrote this like 4 days ago and then decided after cosmic love I would throw this out there


End file.
